Best playoff series post-lockout era article

BaYBaller · Post #1 » by **BaYBaller** » Fri May 1, 2009 9:57 pm

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_d ... nba,160612

The Dal/Hou and '07 Uta/Hou series are mentioned. Now that the monkey is finally off our backs it's fun now to reflect back and really appreciate what a great series that Dal/Hou series was. They were all close games more or less outside of the gm7 debacle and it got pretty chippy in there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On3mcD7LSaE

You had a motivated, prime T-Mac, a young, surprisingly quick Yao (reminds me of how Biedrins is now), and a cast of NBA has-beens in Barry, Sura, and Wesley playing on their last legs. That team had amazing chemistry and way out-performed their talent-level and expectations.

A far cry from the relatively mellow Por/Hou series in which Hou actually won.

RaoulDuke79 · Post #2 » by **RaoulDuke79** » Fri May 1, 2009 10:03 pm

The Stern/Kings series was my favorite I think. That Dallas/Utah series was great too, I remember actually cheering for Dallas at the time because of how much I hate the Jazz, and that was before Dallas Stern'd us, so I didn't loathe them as much.

YaoZaii · Post #3 » by **YaoZaii** » Fri May 1, 2009 11:59 pm

don't forget ryan bowen.

Guy986 · Post #4 » by **Guy986** » Sat May 2, 2009 6:58 am

We had a washed up David Wesly and Ryan Bowen starting for us in that series.In retrospect, i can't believe we took the Mavs to 7 games.

highrangeslang · Post #5 » by **highrangeslang** » Sat May 2, 2009 5:26 pm

Yup.

It's funny, I was just telling someone how I thought the series of Rockets/Mavs was probably the most memorable of recent years. We still hate Dallas because of it.

Baller 24 · Post #6 » by **Baller 24** » Sat May 2, 2009 7:08 pm

Guy986 wrote:We had a washed up David Wesly and Ryan Bowen starting for us in that series.In retrospect, i can't believe we took the Mavs to 7 games.

I do, that was vintage McGrady, he was like Jordan, he was hands down the best two-way wing in the entire league, averaged what 30/7/7/47% for an entire series against the Mavs? While hitting a game winner in game 2? He was simply unstoppable, and that was the series where T-Mac was huge defensively on Dirk.

Rendezvous · Post #7 » by **Rendezvous** » Sat May 2, 2009 7:14 pm

Baller 24 wrote:
Guy986 wrote:We had a washed up David Wesly and Ryan Bowen starting for us in that series.In retrospect, i can't believe we took the Mavs to 7 games.

I do, that was vintage McGrady, he was like Jordan, he was hands down the best two-way wing in the entire league, averaged what 30/7/7/47% for an entire series against the Mavs? While hitting a game winner in game 2? He was simply unstoppable, and that was the series where T-Mac was huge defensively on Dirk.

God I miss him

McGrady2Head · Post #8 » by **McGrady2Head** » Sun May 3, 2009 7:33 pm

Baller 24 wrote:
Guy986 wrote:We had a washed up David Wesly and Ryan Bowen starting for us in that series.In retrospect, i can't believe we took the Mavs to 7 games.

I do, that was vintage McGrady, he was like Jordan, he was hands down the best two-way wing in the entire league, averaged what 30/7/7/47% for an entire series against the Mavs? While hitting a game winner in game 2? He was simply unstoppable, and that was the series where T-Mac was huge defensively on Dirk.

I agree. i dont care what anyone says, T-Mac's last two years in Orlando, and his 1st year in Houston, he was a better player than kobe bryant. T-Mac was unbelievable. The only different between T-Mac and Kobe then was Kobe had Shaq and T-Mac had Zaza Pachulia and Pat Garrity

ShaY · Post #9 » by **ShaY** » Sun May 3, 2009 8:31 pm

Yeah it's a shame that T0Mac's prime was wasted with Declerq as his big man , and rookies Gordan Giricek and Drew Gooden as his best teammates.

I still hope T-Mac can be a good teams second best play fro 3-4 more years , I am hoping it can be with Yao but doubt it.

McGrady2Head · Post #10 » by **McGrady2Head** » Sun May 3, 2009 10:00 pm

T-Mac had the worst luck of any professional i have ever seen. he wasted so many years in orlando waiting on grant hill to get healthy, and it never happened. grant hill was so unbelievable, and would have been a nasty combo with T-Mac. Plus I remember the east was so weak around that time. remember that was when those sorry Nets teams kept making the finals, because there wasnt any other good teams. T-Mac and Hill could have easily led the magic to atleast 3-4 finals appearances. if things would have gone different here and there for T-Mac, i think he would have won 2 titles in orlando, and be fighting for his 3rd right now with Artest and Yao as teammates. We arent better without tmac, its just portland is alot easier than utah as a round 1 opponent.

BaYBaller · Post #11 » by **BaYBaller** » Mon May 4, 2009 2:22 am

T-Mac was unlucky in the fact that his prime was wasted on scrub teams. I've said it before but that first HOU/UTA series was his best chance but his body was already breaking down at that point (ever since '05 season really). Even though he was up big in other series, you couldn't really make the arguement that he could've played much better. In that HOU/UTA series you could, and if he was in his prime HOU would have undoubtably won that series.

But even though he is never going to be the player he once was he is still a very cerebral player and with his skillset can still be a difference maker as long as he can recover from the microfracture surgery. If he comes back so hobbled that he's a liability on defense then I think his career is over. Chris Webber has shown that no matter how smart of a player you are if you can't play defense you don't belong in the NBA.

moofs · Post #12 » by **moofs** » Mon May 4, 2009 2:32 pm

BaYBaller wrote:T-Mac was unlucky in the fact that his prime was wasted on scrub teams. I've said it before but that first HOU/UTA series was his best chance but his body was already breaking down at that point (ever since '05 season really). Even though he was up big in other series, you couldn't really make the arguement that he could've played much better. In that HOU/UTA series you could, and if he was in his prime HOU would have undoubtably won that series.

But even though he is never going to be the player he once was he is still a very cerebral player and with his skillset can still be a difference maker as long as he can recover from the microfracture surgery. If he comes back so hobbled that he's a liability on defense then I think his career is over. Chris Webber has shown that no matter how smart of a player you are if you can't play defense you don't belong in the NBA.

Yup. Sadly, the NBA has a long history of good/great players that lost it suddenly between 26-29 (usually their 4-7th year). They could probably be called the "What-if's," as they tend to be remembered wistfully, having crushed a franchise fanbase's hopes with their deteriorating health, offcourt situations, or whatever else. We just got stuck with one of them, yay!

Crackfool · Post #13 » by **Crackfool** » Tue May 5, 2009 10:37 pm

That Houston-Dallas series would have been epic if it weren't for Mark Cuban using his status as a rich famous owner to influence the refs.

Rendezvous · Post #14 » by **Rendezvous** » Tue May 5, 2009 10:42 pm

Crackfool wrote:That Houston-Dallas series would have been epic if it weren't for Mark Cuban using his status as a rich famous owner to influence the refs.

Yes I still remember that dunk on Shawn Bradley